The invention relates to the field of positioning and laying new track on railroad beds. In laying new track on a road bed, it is known to assist rail movement by using a device called a rail roller. The new rails are removed from a track car of a work train and slid along the ties of the road bed to their desired positions. These rails may be what are known as welded ribbon type rails which come in quarter mile lengths and are thus quite cumbersome to properly position over the rail ties between tie plates. Rail rollers facilitate rail placing. While the concept of roller assisted rail movement has been known for many years, and various rail rollers have been marketed, significant problems have been encountered with known roller devices. For example, rail rollers are known which use nylon bearings, which bearings prevent easy rotation of the roll surface. In addition, conventional rail rollers are adapted to set on top of rail ties so that side wise pressure will upset them. The present invention is directed to a novel rail roller device which provides significant advantages over known rail rollers.